McMahon beats Central to move to 2-0

Matthew Doran

Updated
12:10 am EDT, Saturday, September 21, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- A.J. Albano and Brian Gordon were singing the same song of lament following Friday night's FCIAC opener, hoping their respective teams could learn their lessons from the litany of mistakes made on the turf at Kennedy Stadium.

At least Albano, head coach at McMahon, had the good fortune to do it in victory.

McMahon turned the ball over four times, including twice inside the red zone over the final five minutes of the first half, but still had enough resolve to pull out a 20-12 victory over the winless Hilltoppers.

McMahon (2-0 overall, 1-0 FCIAC), coming off a 34-12 victory over Wilbur Cross in the SCC-FCIAC challenge last week, took a 14-12 lead into halftime before fumbling twice in the third quarter as it tried in vain to put some distance between itself and the Hilltoppers.

Finally, McMahon delivered the knockout punch with a 21-yard touchdown run by Timmy Hinton (120 yards on 12 carries) to take a 20-12 lead with 7:14 left in the fourth quarter.

Central (0-2 overall, 0-1 FCIAC), was led by the brilliant play of speedy junior quarterback Mykel Morris, who rushed for 171 yards and two touchdowns while completing 10 of 21 passes for 78 yards and an interception. Morris brought Central down to the McMahon 4-yard line with less than five minutes left.

But senior safety Brian Gayle stopped Morris for a three-yard loss on fourth down and McMahon successfully ran out the clock.

McMahon dominated most of the action, gaining 364 total yards while completely shutting down Morris and the Hilltoppers in the second half. Four turnovers, seven penalties for 65 yards and handful of dropped passes made it a scary one for the Senators.

"We're lucky. That's a good football team over there," Albano said. "We underestimated them as a staff. We underestimated them as a team. That quarterback is an outstanding athlete. We're lucky to learn a lesson and still get a W."

Central, which made improvement from last week's 42-8 setback against North Haven, was in the game until the final seconds. McMahon needed an interception by Gayle on a final desperation pass to final seal it.

The Hilltoppers just couldn't come up with enough plays to get over the top.

"The effort was there. I'm very proud of that," said Gordon, a first-year head coach at Central. "There are correctable things. There was improvement from last week. We'll be better. I just wish we could have learned our lessons like they did, with a win."

Central turned the ball over on the second play of the game as Dominique Hancock collided with teammate Keyshawn Thomas in the backfield. McMahon took over at the Central 27 and nearly failed to capitalize, but McMahon quarterback Matt Downey (79 yards passing) found Forney from 16 yards out in the back corner of the end zone on fourth down to put the Senators up 7-0.

Morris got the Hilltoppers to within 7-6 on the next possession, bouncing off a McMahon tackler at the 30 then racing into the end zone with a 48-yard touchdown run.

McMahon bogged down deep in Central territory on the next series after a nice 37-yard run by Hinton put the Senators in scoring position, but Downey came through once again on fourth down, this time connecting with Gayle from 16 yards out to put McMahon up 14-6 with 4:18 left in the first quarter.

Central had a Morris touchdown pass negated on an offensive pass interference call, but the Senators gave one back with a facemask penalty on third-and-long from midfield that kept the drive alive. Morris used his legs once again, beating a couple of McMahon defenders to the front corner of the end zone for a 3-yard run to make it 14-12 with 5:15 left in the second.

McMahon drove inside the Central 25 on two straight possessions but left with nothing as Thomas picked off Downey at the 11 with 3:30 left and Clement Rodriguez recovered a Kenny Keen fumble at the nine with 15 seconds left before halftime.